GDB Game Notes: Chiarelli has done the Impossible

Six days later Peter Chiarelli was hired and named President of Hockey Operations and General Manager. When he took the job Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Oscar Klefbom, Darnell Nurse and McDavid (essentially) were part of the team.

Fast forward three years and eight months, and the Oilers best players are arguably the aforementioned five players. Chiarelli had no input in their spot on the roster, but he has built the rest of it, and the supporting cast isn’t close to good enough. He’s done what I thought was impossible; Have the most dynamic player in the NHL, but downgrade the skill around him.

Take away the five players he had no say in, and Jujhar Khaira, who was drafted in 2012, and compare the roster then to the one today.

3. So what areas has he improved? He downgraded the forward skill and the worst part is Hall and Lucic make the same money. Hall won the Hart Trophy last season scoring 93 points and has 37 points in 33 games this season. Lucic has 42 points in his last 120 games, and in his last 81 games he has a whopping two goals. And please spare me any mention that Hall wasn’t good in Edmonton. He was top-ten in scoring twice.

4. On December 31st, 2015 the Oilers depth forwards (I excluded the top three scorers, Hall, Eberle and RNH) had a combined 39 goals and 94 points. The current Oilers depth forwards (excluding McDavid, Draisaitl and RNH) have 40 goals and 86 points. And in fact this morning they only have 33 goals 75 points because Caggiula is no longer on the team. Chiarelli hasn’t been able to surround his best players with any productive forward depth in three and a half years.

5. The defence and goaltending is better, but in 2015 the Oilers allowed 3.37 goals/game and this season they have allowed 3.11 goals/game. The Oilers blueline, excluding Nurse and Klefbom, has $20.5 million in cap space between Larsson, Sekera, Russell, Manning, Petrovic, Benning and Gravel. He has now stockpiled a boatload of defencemen and none of the depth guys provide offence in an era where puck movement is a must from the backend.

6. I will say under his watch the Oilers drafting has improved. It isn’t great, but at least the Oilers have some prospects in the American League. However, despite that, his scouting staff and he decided at the 2015 entry draft that Griffin Reinhart would help them. They liked him so much that they gave up the 16th and 33rd picks to get him. Their scouts believed he was better than all of the picks available at #16 which included Matt Barzal (16th), Kyle Connor (17th), Thomas Chabot (18th), Evgeny Svechnikov (19th) Joel Ericksson Ek (20th), Colin White (21st), Ilya Samsonov (22nd), Brock Boeser (23rd) and Travis Konecny. Even if they didn’t’ take Barzal, then one of Connor, Chabot, White, Boeser and Konecny would have been much more impactful to the current roster. Hell, even Ericksson Ek, Svechnikov and Samsonov would be developing. To be that wrong on Reinhart is embarrassing, especially when he wasn’t even a top pairing defenceman in the AHL at the time of the trade.

7. Under Chiarelli’s watch the Oilers still can’t help themselves from rushing young forwards. Jesse Puljujarvi hasn’t been NHL ready since he arrived in Edmonton, but Chiarelli and his management team want him to “develop” in the NHL. Newsflash: the NHL isn’t a developmental league. You let players develop more in junior, Europe or the AHL and when they come to the NHL they will show you they are ready. Puljujarvi is now 20 and in his third pro season. He has scored 16 goals in 120 NHL games and has 15 goals and 37 points in 53 AHL games. He’s never been allowed to develop his offensive game, which is what you drafted him for at fourth overall in 2016, and in the short stints in the AHL he never dominated. This isn’t a knock on him, because learning the North American game when you are only 18 and 19 is very difficult, but under Chiarelli’s watch the Oilers stubbornly believe he can develop in the NHL. He hasn’t, and he sure as hell won’t be developing any offensive confidence when he scores one goal every nine games like he has this season.

8. Now Chiarelli and his staff believe adding another 20-year-old in Kailer Yamamoto is the way to go. He isn’t physically ready for the NHL. He thinks the game very well, but he isn’t physically ready. He had four goals and eight points in eleven AHL games before being recalled. No other team in the NHL has two 20-year-old forwards on their roster who have combined for 17 goals in 142 NHL games. These are supposed to be offensive players, and Chiarelli believes having them produce like fourth line players will help them grow. Wake up. This is not how winning teams develop players. Yamamoto will not be any better than Ryan Spooner today, and if they don’t let him develop properly and maintain his offensive confidence, he might never end up being better. They could have recalled 25-year-old Joseph Gambardella instead of Yamamoto last week, if they needed a body on the roster. He is 200 pounds. He leads their AHL team in scoring. I’m not sold he will be an NHL player long-term, but today I bet he could be just as impactful as Yamamoto in the NHL. And most importantly Yamamoto would be playing a lot, scoring a lot and gaining confidence in the minors, so when next year’s training camp comes around the Oilers might actually have a young forward who could give them some complementary scoring. The Oilers could have recalled Gambardella and not traded Caggiula, instead they trade Caggiula and then recall Gambardella.

9. The problem with the Oilers is they continually fail to realize you don’t win with all young players. It is a man’s league. Yes, there are some elite skilled young players in the league, but the elite ones produce right away and the Oilers have two in McDavid and Draisaitl. Winning teams don’t rely on having all young players in key roles. Washington and Pittsburgh have won the last three Stanley Cups. Did they have any major key contributors who were on entry level deals? Tampa Bay has Brayden Point, who is 22, but look at the rest of their top forwards — they are all veterans. Their young forwards— Anthony Cirelli and Mathieu Joseph — are 21, and both played in the AHL for a season and are in bottom six roles. Where is Edmonton going to get another top-six forward for next season? If they believe Puljujarvi or Yamamoto will be that guy, they are taking another major risk. They thought one of them would be ready this year and neither is close. And they are doing nothing to help their offensive development. In fact they are hindering it. It’s embarrassing how this organization doesn’t see this, yet other teams do.

10. Yesterday Chiarelli traded away Caggiula for Brandon Manning. Manning has a $2.25 mill cap hit for next year while Caggiula makes $1.5 million. Caggiula is far from a perfect player, but he has seven goals this season and over the past 1.5 years he has 20 goals, fourth most among Oilers forwards behind McDavid, Draisaitl and RNH. Caggiula is also physical. He needs to improve in his own zone, but good coaches can improve that.

Most coaches can’t teach offensive instincts or finish, and the Oilers just traded one of the few complementary forwards they had who could actually produce some goals. Chiarelli and new head coach Ken Hitchcock still believe size is a major factor in winning. This is 2019, size only helps if the player with it has the same amount of skill as the smaller player. The Caggiula/Manning trade just reaffirmed to me Chiarelli has no direction for this team. Why acquire Manning, another left shot D when you have Klefbom, Nurse, Russell, Sekera, Gravel and Jones? What was the effing point? He isn’t any better than Gravel and Gravel costs 1/3 the price. Gravel has been on for 12 GF and 12 GA at 5×5 in 296 minutes. Manning has played 358 5×5 minutes and is has been on for 9 GF-26 GA. He is -17 at 5×5, makes three times as much and some people actually think he is an upgrade on Gravel. Oh my.

11. Chiarelli added salary for next year for D-man who has been a healthy scratch 14 times on a team below them in the standings and Chicago has surrendered 27 more goals. Is he much better/different from the defenders they have on the roster today? Manning makes $2.25 million this year and next year. Kevin Gravel makes $700,000. Caleb Jones makes $720,000. Is Manning any better? If you wanted to trade Caggiula, fine, but it makes zero sense to do it when the return is a more expensive D-man, who doesn’t add offence and isn’t a stellar defensively. How does this make the Oilers better? It doesn’t.

12.And remember the Oilers have no scoring depth. Since the start of last season Caggiula has the 4th most goals, 20, on the Oilers behind RNH, Draisaitl and McDavid. Yes, he has warts in his game, but if you think trading him to add salary for another LD who brings no offence and has no numbers suggesting he will help defensively is utterly laughable. With Chiasson out of the lineup and Caggiula traded, the fourth most goals among Oilers forwards is now three from Kyle Brodziak and Puljujarvi. The Oilers had added a defensive RD earlier in the day in Alex Petrovic, who has better analytics than Manning, so the Manning trade made even less sense for me. I want to make it clear I have nothing against the player. He didn’t ask to be traded for Caggiula. And it doesn’t mean Caggiula was someone they couldn’t have moved. It is the simple truth here is another trade where the GM downgraded in talent.

13. Chiarelli did a good job filling out the Boston Bruins roster between 2006-2014. He helped build them into a Stanley Cup winner, but that was in Boston and the game is different today. His track record in Edmonton speaks for itself. The Oilers have made the playoffs once, but that looks like the outlier, as they missed the other two years and currently sit in 11th place in the Western Conference. The trades he’s made in-season this year have made zero positive impact.

14. Chiarelli has the most dynamic player in the NHL. He didn’t need to add big names to the roster he inherited, he just needed to revamp it, but he hasn’t come close to making the rest of the roster any better than the one his predecessor, Craig MacTavish, built. The sad part for Oilersnation is I don’t see a quick fix coming. Unless McDavid, Draisaitl and RNH manage to carry the team on their back for 40 games, and play at an even higher level than they currently are, this team isn’t making the playoffs and they simply don’t have the depth to compete if they do make the postseason.

This isn’t the players’ fault. The GM’s job is to build the roster and make the team competitive. The results are proof Chiarelli has failed.

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152 Comments |

Although this article makes perfectly good sense, you don’t really need it to know what is blatantly obvious all on it’s own. Everybody but the OBC seems to see what is crystal clear, right there for all to see. The results speak for themselves.

The foundation of a hockey club is goaltending. When the Oil acquired Talbot & then had the 16/17 season things looked pretty rosy between the pipes. He signed a reasonable contract but hasn’t lived up to that 16/17 season & this has been the biggest problem for the Oil. Koskinen has been a good signing to date, we’ll see how everything plays out. Chiasson has been an excellent PTO contract signing. I’m happy Chia’s made some moves to try help the Oilers get to the playoffs. It would be hard for any team to replace 3 top 4 dmen on their roster. Let’s see how things play out before crying the sky is falling, we’re still over .500!

No to Sekera and Klefbom. Russell is very close. So you think Manning in lineup is better than Gravel and Caggiula for one or two games? Okay, I don’t and the numbers back up my point. Manning wasn’t playing in Chicago. He is -17 at 5×5. Gravel is even. If you think Manning is that much better, all the power to you. I disagree.

Plus minus is a dead stat, based on Manning’s career numbers he does have NHL upside. Not sure why everyone is focusing on one season, but it seems like some are determined to hate this. Good article over all, it’s not all roses in Oiler nation but this season he was on a bad blackhawks on their bottom pairing and posted a career worst. For intellectual honesty as a journalist you could at least note this

Reactive trades pal. If he had built proper depth like most organizations he wouldn’t have to be scrambling like this. Every team has to deal with injuries. Proper depth and development helps mitigate moves like yesterday.

I mean, maybe? He’s been here 3 years, not sure what you want for depth but to build it you typically ship out something or sign free agents. He did both, and didn’t give up much. He waited too long though, that’s for sure

Guys and Girls, It is clear peter has no idea what he is doing. None. Why the hell did he trade for Widemen???? like did he watch the tape? He is reportedly already trying to trade ryan spooner! We overpaid for a healthy scratch and the Manning deal makes NO sense. FIRE THE GM

Gregor, this article hits the nail on the head 100%. Last night was the 1st time I truly felt 100% dejected with this team/mgmt. For years I have been trying to see the positives/reasoning behind the moves that have been made but after yesterday it just isnt possible anymore.
The unbelievable ineptitude of our GM and the incredible ignorance of upper mgmt to see the blatant issues is astonishing.

But Gregor I would like to add one more problem to the overwhelming dumpster fire. Since acquiring Chia we have gone from being recognized as one of the loudest barns in the league to being widely recognized as one of the quietest. No matter how bad the team was the rink was always loud and energetic. Now the organization has put more emphasis it seems on sponsored giveaways and pointless contests all the while sucking every bit of energy out of the rink. It is embarrassing being a season seat holder and inviting guests to witness our sham of a product/production.

The biggest problem is that with it being so damned difficult to obtain season seats my undying loyalty to this club prevents me from letting them lapse.

Somehow change is needed otherwise we may as well relocate to Cleveland and be called the Browns because they really were the only other pro team managed worse than us.

My vote for article of the year. Just under the wire for the win.
Each point is an undeniable truth. Shocking realities.
Until we ask for help, we continue the search for rock bottom.
We are not there yet with the leadership on hand.

Chiarelli takes way too many chances. When he can do something good then he is doing mediocrely but when he is doing something bad, he failed spectacularly. The very first move made by Chiarelli was so terrible that if we actually trace the step back that he should be fired on the spot.

The most recent trade that got Petrovic should get him fired already considering that he just traded away another draft pick which the team is desperately needed to filled the talent pool as to combat the cap trouble. The biggest problem caused by Chiarelli is that he thinned the prospect pools so much so that when injury comes that no one can be called up to fill the hole.

Excellent article, Jason…one of the best I’ve ever read. I believe we have to fire Chiarelli before he does any more damage. No way can we trust him with this roster anymore. I can’t believe we just lost Caggiula for a guy who had a contract so bad nobody thought he could be traded for. Time for Chiarelli to go!

This article is on point. I think it did miss a few major downfalls of the current GMs reign of terror. Namely A) buyouts that make no sense. B) Free agents and contracts that are mind blowingly stupid. C) Inability to add competent PK roster players. D) Keep the wrong players and shipping out ones who could help and have had success elsewhere.

Pure sad truth. Chia has been horrible, the idea that if we make the playoffs he stays was a horrible thing to say, now a part of me hopes they won’t make it… Surely Nicholson has a replacement in mind, wonder who that might be???